Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 30. September 2022
Embedded within my conscience, and what should be embedded in the conscience of every Muslim who takes his or her religion seriously, is God's refrain in Surah Al Imran: “...and that there might grow out of you a community [of people] who invite unto all that is good, and enjoin the doing of what is right and forbid the doing of what is wrong: and it is they, they who shall attain to a happy state!” (Q 3:104). This is further underscored in the same surah: “You are indeed the best...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 12. August 2022
In essence, the sum total of our journey on this earth, of this miraculous event that gives us consciousness - and we enjoy this consciousness for a period of time until it slips away - the truth of the matter is, with all the speculation and all the attempts at insight and perception, what awaits us after this consciousness slips away is only truly known to God and God alone. After this consciousness slips away, is it a state of sleep until resurrection? Do we acquire some level of...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 05. August 2022
A reflective, Qur’anic human being is a human being that handles life on earth as God repeatedly reminds us to. When God asks us to engage in ta’aqqul (to reason), tafakkur (to ponder/reflect), and tadhakkur (to remember, literally: to do dhikr), it is, in essence, a constant reminder of the reflective life. That you are not simply like so much that is led by instinct and engineered by habit; you are not simply a phenomenon, something that manifests on this earth to enjoy a momentary burst...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 15. July 2022
This jumu’a, there are a considerable number of events and issues that are transpiring, all of direct concern for Muslims that we could speak about. But as with all affairs, we reflect upon the challenges that the world presents us with in light of the foundations that the divine revelation has left us with. There is, or at least there should be, a constant conversation in the mind of a believing, faithful Muslim between the lived experiences in the world and the wisdom imparted through...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 20. May 2022
There is an image that is hard to ignore, that really puts Muslims to the ultimate test. The image is quite simply this: An excavator, a big monstrous truck beginning to tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is accompanied with a caption stating the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque will begin on May 29th, inviting all Israelis to come to Al-Aqsa Mosque so that the tearing down, the dismantling, and the destroying of Al-Aqsa Mosque can begin. This call for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque to begin...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 13. May 2022
We have truisms, things that we say as Muslims that we have become so accustomed to. The problem with developing habits of familiarity and becoming accustomed to things is that human beings often become complacent in their habits. With complacency, there is also often the loss of meaning. We as Muslims have the Qur'an in our midst. By conviction, the Qur'an is God's revelation. It is God's testament to us. What God affirmatively chose to leave to us as a will and trust. We do not know God's...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 06. May 2022
The challenge in any act of public discourse or public communications is that one must tap within and seek to connect with people on what is presumptively shared common grounds, on what is presumptively something that the speaker shares with the listener; centered around the idea, in the case of jumu’a khutbahs, that the remembrance of God in this public, collective devotional act must be the foundation for the communicative act. For the speaker and the congregation in the listening role, the...
Friday Khutbahs (Sermons) · 19. November 2021
One of the very basic, and perhaps even theoretically undeniable moral precepts, is the equal value ascribed to human life. That at least at an abstract level, human beings are obliged to agree with what constitutes in religious traditions generally, often an article of faith, that God is the maker of human beings and that God made human life equal in sanctity to one another; that the sanctity of human life is undifferentiated and invariable. Often, especially in the modern age, this preset has...